Mandarin Grammar Lesson 4Locative Marker

Vocabulary

Function words

Places

Grammar Description

"zai4"
is one of the few words in Chinese that corresponds to an English preposition.
It takes the places of all the English prepositions describing location: "at, above,
below, in, on, out, around, etc." "zai4"
always requires an object corresponding to a location. (This can be a place
like a country or a building, or an object.)

As used above, the phrase can be used as a linking verb. It
is also used to show where an action occurs, or to describe an object. Examples
of these various uses will be given in future lessons.

The location following "zai4"
gives the description ranging from General to Specific. Descriptive
phrases do not need any conjunction between them. This can be as simple as
Country-City such as "Zhong1guo2Bei3jing1" to as exact and
specific as needed (like "on the bottom of a seat a man going to a seminar in Florida
is sitting on, 15 feet above the ground").